Administrative Simplification: Adoption of a Standard for a Unique Health Plan Identifier; Addition to the National Provider Identifier Requirements; and a Change to the Compliance Date for ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS Medical Data Code Sets

This proposed rule would implement section 1104 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (hereinafter referred to as the Affordable Care Act) by establishing new requirements for administrative transactions that would improve the utility of the existing Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) transactions and reduce administrative burden and costs. It proposes the adoption of the standard for a national unique health plan identifier (HPID) and requirements or provisions for the implementation of the HPID. This rule also proposes the adoption of a data element that will serve as an other entity identifier (OEID), an identifier for entities that are not health plans, health care providers, or “individuals,” that need to be identified in standard transactions. This proposed rule would also specify the circumstances under which an organization covered health care provider must require certain noncovered individual health care providers who are prescribers to obtain and disclose an NPI. Finally, this rule proposes to change the compliance date for the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) for diagnosis coding, including the Official ICD-10-CM Guidelines for Coding and Reporting, and the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) for inpatient hospital procedure coding, including the Official ICD-10-PCS Guidelines for Coding and Reporting, from October 1, 2013 to October 1, 2014.

DSM-5

The DSM-5 clinical settings field trials, scheduled to complete by December, last year, but extended in order that more participants might be recruited, were expected to conclude this March. (Source: DSM-5 Disorganization, Disarray, and Delays, Dr Dayle Jones, American Counseling Association, January 3, 2012)

In November, DSM-5 Task Force Vice-chair, Darrel Regier, MD, predicted the pushing back of the final public review and comment period for revised draft diagnostic criteria from January-February to “no later than May 2012,” in response to DSM-5 timeline slippage and delays in completion of the field trials. (Source: APA Answers DSM-5 Critics, Deborah Brauser, November 9, 2011)

The timeline on the DSM-5 Development site was updated to reflect a “Spring” posting of draft diagnostic criteria but thus far, APA has released no firm date for a final public review and feedback exercise in May.

The second release of draft proposals was posted on May 4, last year, with no prior announcement or news release by APA and caught professional bodies, patient organizations and advocates unprepared.

It is hoped that APA will give reasonable notice before releasing their third and final draft – though how much influence professional and public feedback might have at this late stage in the DSM-5 development process is moot.

Spring 2012: Revised draft diagnostic criteria will be posted on http://www.dsm5.org and open to a third public feedback period for 2 months. Feedback will be shared directly with work group members, and further edits to proposals will be made as needed.

The full DSM-5 Timeline (as it stands at April 8, 2012) can be found here.

ICD-11

The current timeline schedules presentation of the ICD-11 to the World Health Assembly in May 2015 – a year later than the 2009 timeline.

The ICD-11 Beta drafting platform is scheduled to be launched and open to the public this May for comment and interaction. It will be a work in progress – not a final Beta draft. The final Beta draft isn’t scheduled until 2014.

No announcement that the Beta platform remains on target for a May release has been issued by WHO or ICD-11 Revision Steering Group and no date is given on the ICD Revision website for the launch.

The publicly viewable version of the Alpha drafting platform (the ICD-11 Alpha Browser) can be accessed here. The various ICD-11 Revision Topic Advisory Groups work on a separate, more layered multi-author drafting platform.

NB: The Alpha drafting platform is a work in progress. It is incomplete, in a state of flux, updated daily and subject to WHO Caveats.

PDFs of Draft Print versions of the Linearization are available from the Linearization tab to logged in users.

The ICD-11 timeline (as it stands at April 8, 2012) can be found on the WHO website here.

ICD-10-CM

Note: ICD-10-CM is the forthcoming US specific “Clinical Modification” of the WHO’s ICD-10. Following implementation of ICD-10-CM, the US is not anticipated to move on to ICD-11, or a Clinical Modification of ICD-11, for a number of years after global transition to ICD-11.

On February 16, Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen G. Sebelius, announced HHS’s intent to initiate a process to postpone the date by which certain health care entities have to comply with ICD-10-CM diagnosis and procedure codes. (Source: CMS Public Affairs/HHS Press Release, February 16, 2012)

The final rule adopting ICD-10-CM as a standard was published in January 2009, when a compliance date of October 1, 2013 had been set – a delay of two years from the compliance date initially specified in the 2008 proposed rule.